


Waking Up to Ash and Dust

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerti Week 2018 [5]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Neon Genesis Evangelion Fusion, F/F, Fighting, Mecha, Rescue, Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27606973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: In their defence of the world, pilots control the ancient bio-mechanical creatures known as WEAPONS. Everything was fine until one encounter with an overwhelmingly powerful Remnant opponent.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: Aerti Week 2018 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016011
Kudos: 3





	Waking Up to Ash and Dust

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Battle' - and inspired by any number of _Evangelion/FFVII_ mash-ups. This one takes most of its cues from _Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance_. Title is from Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

The Remnant, its skull-like face still leering, pulled Ruby closer. “Tifa!” Aeris called out despite the mako flooding her lungs, her words lost in the fluid. Had to move, had to get up. Sapphire was ponderous now, damaged and losing power at a frightening pace. Not now. The pain wasn’t real – not to her, she could ignore the feedback. Aeris stood. The near heart-stopping wavering, the pause before the WEAPON responded to her. Her sync ratio must be lower than normal. Aeris grimaced and focused.

A flicker; the doubling-like sensation from her early sync trials, when exhaustion became too much. She was sitting in a flooded cylinder, a blank canopy ahead of her all she could see- Sight and sound snapped back into focus as she again saw through the WEAPON’s eyes. The doubling came again; her eyes widening to painful diameters.

The Remnant exuded a fleshy appendage, the tip engorging as it moved, thickening in response to some unknowable biological process. It grew fast splitting in two, each part of a nightmarish maw filled with the glitter of sharpened points. The maw surrounded and closed on Ruby Weapon. Aeris started forward and stopped. The crack of shattered metal, of broken bones at gigantic scale rang across their battlefield.

The appendage retracted, broken stumps of Ruby’s legs toppling to the ground, blood spurting from the cavities. The Remnant withdrew its mouthful back inside, nothing but the skull visible, eyes flickering with the tell-tale light of its energy beam.

And Aeris was screaming, screaming in the mako, the synchronisation between her and the WEAPON flickering in and out as the Remnant prepared to attack. But Ruby WEAPON’s legs, the only remains of Tifa Lockhart still bled on the ground. Her vision blacked out; her battery life expended.

Sorrow and rage in the dark. Her focus wavered and the battlefield was visible once more. How- A flicker of light and pain.

The pain brought focus. Sapphire had moved somehow; an involuntary reaction as she mourned? Or was it another instance of Sapphire’s curious quirks; moving without power, without pilots, without any form of human control. The movement did not come to much; the pain was astonishing, Her, no, Sapphire’s left arm blasted off to the shoulder, the stump cauterised by the intensity.

Another flicker of focus; Aeris clenched her teeth. “Give Tifa back!”

The babble of voices from the ground crew faded away; desperate orders for retreats, prepping for other WEAPONs, last lines of defence if the Remnant got any closer to its target. None of that mattered now. The WEAPONs’ survival was secondary. She might leave them defenceless; Ultima lay broken nearby, the unknown pilot reportedly still alive. Were they others to draw on? Five was an oft-muttered total though Aeris only knew of three.

Sapphire responded as her vision aligned once more. The pain intensified but it would not stop her now. She sat upright, the Remnant shifting to flick its tentacles forward. Aeris brought her hand up, her reflexes almost impossibly quick. She caught the tentacle, its razor-sharp edges useless like this. With a heave she pulled it closer, the creature’s vast bulk pressed up against her. How long could Tifa have? There was little indication externally of the creature doing anything to the consumed WEAPON but the internal biology of the entities remained elusive and inconsistent.

Sapphire kept hold of the tentacle as Aeris kicked the Remnant away, the tentacle tearing from the creature’s body as it fell back. The tendril remained wrapped around her hand. Something to repurpose; not as if they were different- Another wince when the tendril touched the wound; now a wave of pins and needles spread the length of her arm, sensation following in its wake. A curled, clawed hand replaced the mako-armoured original. Now she could fight.

Ahead the Remnant struggled upright; Sapphire flung itself forward with a burst of speed.

The first stack of AT fields caught Aeris by surprise, but should not have. Other Remnants - and the WEAPONs - made use of the shifting geometric patterns for defence. This Remnant was different in its use of vast stacks of the Fields. They were an obstacle. An obstacle she could overcome.

Sapphire smashed a clawed hand down into the stack, the energy field, the variance in the air cracking like glass. Brute, blunt force from her right hand, wicked sharp slices from her left. The WEAPON attacked the AT fields, the murky outline of the Remnant becoming clearer as she moved closer. The last layer of the stack fell and the Remnant’s eyes flickered again. Sapphire brought the clawed hand up reflexively, the air blurring as an AT field generated to absorb the blast. The ground around her scorched and blackened.

Another flick of her hand, the arc sweeping through the same space as the Remnant’s body. Blood erupted, catching on half-destroyed AT fields to rain down onto the ground. The skull-like face seemed more afraid of her than before. Sapphire moved before it could think of retreat. A clawed hand shoved the creature down; the flicker came again. Her hands kept the creature pinned. What- An abrupt hunger, a desperate need to consume came over her. Sapphire lean down, teeth grinding and crunching as they split the boney protrusions of the Remnant’s face. The creature slackened beneath her, the mouthful still pulsing with life.

Tifa. She needed to find Tifa. Nausea threatened to overwhelm Aeris. What was she doing? These savage attacks, eating a Remnant? A burst of chatter, concerned voices from the radio. No time now; Tifa remained trapped inside this thing’s corpse. She needed to get her back. Unpleasant but-

Sapphire’s hands descended over the remains of the Remnant, fingers stopping short of clawing, tearing, digging inside the fallen enemy. Instead, she focused everything down onto the now exposed core of the Remnant. Around her the wind picked up. Wind? Down here? A distraction from her goal. Dust and debris began circling as she focused. Time and weight ceased to have meaning, the wind roaring around Sapphire as Aeris delved deeper, the entry plug fading away. The doubling; Sapphire’s eyes (a roaring cyclone, the landscape painted red, some glowing mass above her spreading out wider and wider-) and her own (a darkened passage she was certain would lead to Tifa).

A final barrier, a strange fluid wall forcing her back; it took all of her energy to push through. Tifa lay curled and motionless. “Tifa!” Aeris called, her voice echoing. Sapphire’s arm shattered the Remnant’s body. “Take my hand!”

Tifa stirred, slowly, too slowly. But she was here, she was alive. Too far apart; too great a distance. Aeris stretched her hand; Tifa raised up. Closer, closer-

There. Aeris and Tifa’s hands closed around each other. Sapphire wrenched her hand back; Aeris pulled Tifa up. The most precious thing in the world in her hands-

Pain. Worse than losing an arm, worse than losing Tifa. It built and built, crashing in waves out of her torso. Sapphire screamed in agony, gaze flicking around attempting to understand what had happened. A spear-head extended out of the front of Sapphire WEAPON, pinning her to the ground. And now something moved in the rapidly calming skies; the cyclone, the red landscape, the glowing mass all gone. Sapphire caught a last glimpse of an unfamiliar WEAPON floating down from unknown heights before she fell unconscious.


End file.
